Dad's Birthday

Our God does work in mysterious ways.  Today would be Dad's 54th birthday.  Of course, I knew that it was coming up, but I wasn't consciously thinking about it today.  

As I was driving to meet Jadie for lunch today, I opened my cell phone to call him and let him know we were getting close.  I always use the recent calls feature to retrieve and redial his number because it takes fewer keystrokes to do that than to dial the number or look it up in contacts.  Plus, it's just habit at this point.

As I got to the recent calls screen, it showed that the last person I called was "Steve Ray," the home number.  I did not call that number today.  It is possible that Caleb pushed some buttons, calling the number, but what are the chances?  I believe that regardless of how my phone ended up displaying my dad's name, God reminded me of him today.

I love you Daddy!

Celebrating a Beautiful Woman

This one's for my Granny.  She's done a beautiful job of aging gracefully.  And a beautiful job of loving her husband of over 55 years.  Last Thursday, she turned seventy seven!  On Sunday, the family celebrated her by letting her cook us a good meal.  And she smiled as we botched her happy birthday song.  We love our Granny!

This is my Granny and PawPaw.  This is how they are. 

Post 5 of 5

Here's the last one for today.  When Caleb spilled his milk this morning, I immediately saw Alaska.  What do you see?

After googling Alaska, I see that it's missing the peninsula to the west, but it's still pretty close. See Alaska below.

Caleb's Art Project for Today

Raised Garden

On Friday I mentioned that we had no big plans for the weekend.  We didn't really, but here's what we did do.  

Another beautiful work of craftsmanship by my handy stud of a man.  We haven't filled it with soil yet because the ground beneath it needs to be leveled first.  That was too much for last weekend.  We'll tackle that another time.

Mom's Dated Foyer

Here's mom's dated foyer before we did much to it.  We had already pried off the trim at the top of the panelling  and pulled off some wallpaper before I remembered to get out the camera.  Isn't it lovely with the pink wallpaper and dark wood panelling?

Here's what it looked like after we peeled off the wallpaper and pried off every bit of panelling.  We also scraped off the popcorn ceiling.  What a mess!  You can't see it in this picture, but it would seem as though the wallpaper may have been original to the house because under it, were handwritten words,  'Paper' and 'Panel.'  Nice.
After Kristin and I spent some time sanding and filling in holes and scars with joint compound, we began to prime the walls in preparation for new texture.  Caleb and Granana got in on the priming.

Once the priming was done, Kristin and I did texture all of the walls and the ceiling.  That ceiling was ANNOYING, but I suppose getting to say 'good riddance' to the popcorn was worth it.  And I had to remind myself that it was worth it again on Saturday (a week after our ceiling priming and texturing) when I found a few streaks of white primer in my hair.  Most days I don't bother doing much with my hair, but Saturday I dried it and discovered the whiteness.  Nice.

Mom has a homework assignment to prime and paint the walls following the texturing job we did.  I hope she does it soon...I can't wait to see the final result!

Cheeky

You know how there are MANY times that you wonder what goes on in the mind of a toddler?

Let me tell you a LONG story about how this plays out in my life.  It was Sunday afternoon, Jadie was participating in a fantasy football draft, Caleb was napping, and I had a grocery list that was sure to cost me a good chunk of change.  What did I do?  I decided to go out in search of a swimsuit, insisting on finding one on clearance that might actually flatter my womanly form.  I'll bet from the previous sentence you can guess that I did not find one that met my two requirements.  I found a new swimsuit for Jadie for only $13, but no, not one for me.  Jadie actually approved of my selection and wore his new swimsuit to the water park Sunday evening.

After visiting every store in Central Texas Marketplace, I had not found a suitable suit.  I hung my head and drove on to the grocery store to spend an hour maneuvering my way through the crowd.

When I got home, Caleb was happily playing and I honestly don't remember what Jadie was doing.  The thing is, Caleb was on a serious mission, tugging on his pants and diaper.  I still don't know what he was trying to accomplish, but this is what he looked like after all of the pulling and tugging.

And now, an even more flattering angle:

Here's your chance to let the media know where people stand on our faith in God, as a nation.  NBC is taking a poll on 'In God We Trust' to stay on our American currency.  Please go vote before NBC takes this off the web page.

Poll is still open so you can vote.

NBC's In God We Trust Poll

Go vote!

Late Breakfast

It's eleven Saturday morning, and Jadie's playing a round of golf.  Here's what Caleb and I are having for breakfast...

Recipe and photo taken from www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking.

Just an Update...Again

Well, here's what's been happening since Sunday.

Kristin, Caleb, and I went to mom's from Sunday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon.  We started working on her foyer walls.  The wallpaper came off easily and the panelling only took about 30 minutes to get off.  Then we completed the messy job of scraping off the popcorn ceiling texture.  The next morning, we primed, and then got started with painting on some new texture.  This part took forever!  Like until 2:30am and then we still had to do two walls and the ceiling the following day.  When we left, mom still needed to prime over the new texture and paint.

Yesterday I caught up on a couple of loads of laundry before heading to JC Penney to spend a $10 coupon I had been holding onto.  After my $10 off, I only spent $6 on a new shirt and dress.  I tried on the shirt, but not the dress.  When I got home, I was showing off my new dress to Jadie and I wore it around the house for about 30 minutes.  After taking it off and hanging it on a hanger, I noticed that it was maternity!  Are you kidding me?  I think I'll wear it anyway!

This morning, Caleb and I met some friends at Jumping Party, where Caleb spends his time running around the play area, not really wanting to get on any of the inflatables.  He did get in the toddler bounce house for a while once another kiddo got in.  As we talked, Tracy revealed that she and her husband put their house up for sale and may be moving soon!  Does anyone stay here?

This weekend?  No big plans for a change.  Maybe a movie in the park, maybe painting the living room, maybe building the raised garden in the backyard.

Catching Up

I don't have much time to blog today because Caleb and I are about out head out with my sister to go to Mom's for a few days.  I can't wait to find out what sort of to-do list items we can help her with this time!

This week has been a good one.  I went to several garage sales on Friday with Kristin and Julia nd then the Saturday only garage sales with Jadie on Saturday.  Jadie got his once a month haircut and we took a nap before Jadie's 10-year high school reunion.

Jadie had always planned not to go to his reunion, but when he found out his 3 best buds would go, we went too.  He said he enjoyed catching up with old classmates and finding out what everyone's been up to.

Backyard Makeover

Back on July 7th, I said I'd post before and after pictures of the second half of our backyard makeover.  I said you'd be sitting on pins and needles until I posted the conclusion of the planting process.  At this point, you've probably forgotten all about it, but I think you'll still be able to appreciate the results.  Here you go...

If you have a keen eye for detail, you may notice the rectangle in the middle that is a different color green.  We still plan to build a raised garden there.  You know, for vegetables and such.

I can't forget to mention that I'm so very proud of all that Jadie does around here to make things nice!  Thank you!

Don't Call Me a Procrastinator!

It wouldn't be very fitting.

At least not today.

I am almost finished painting the dining room!

And here's what it looks like...

The Dining Room Process

We have disliked the dining room chair rail job in our house since we moved in almost 4 years ago.  I recently decided to do something about it.  Here's the progress so far.

BEFORE

Notice the beautiful brown globs of glue peeking out from behind the moulding.

Next, notice the chunks of drywall that were removed with the glue.  We used acetone to try to release the grip of the glue.  It worked better in some places than others.

After that, we used joint compound to fill in the chunks of missing drywall.  We smoothed things out with a putty knife.

After this step, we used a spray can of Knockdown texture to recreate the look of the original wall texture.  I didn't take a picture of that.  

Next, I primed the newly textured area where the chair rail used to reside and also primed over the incredibly dark navy blue on the bottom half of the wall.  It took three coats to cover up the navy!  I tried to take a picture just now, but it's pretty hard to get a picture of a plain white wall.  That's all it is right now, just plain white primer.

Today, I shall paint the wall from floor to ceiling in our new color selection, Bonjour Beige by Glidden.  I'll post a picture when I get that all done!

Another Blog

I started a side blog this morning.  Keep me accountable to update it and be reading my Bible!

My Word from God

Hearing the Voice of God

i have been trucking along in my walk as a Christian, trying my best to follow God's commands as i know them to be from my past Bible reading and study.  over the last several...maybe 6-12 months...i have been relying on what i already know, but i have not made Jesus my one priority.  my priority has been myself, my emotions, my enjoyment, my feeling of security, my this, my that.  

as i should, i have continued in my commitment to expose myself to God's word through church and such.  what i have not done is to sit down and ask God for a word for me and then open the Bible and seek it out for myself.  this is about to change.  today.

i heard a sermon on wednesday night at church that i enjoyed, but i didn't really take anything way from it.  i talked with kristin on thursday about how the point of the message was potentially useful for someone else, but i wasn't really thinking of myself at that point.  that changed during a 30 minute drive on friday.  i realized that wednesday's message was a word for me!  the message had been about losing sight of Jesus.  he had pointed out that it is even possible to lose Jesus while doing things in his name.  it's possible to lose your focus on Jesus by doing things that are perfectly acceptable and good.  but sometimes you need to stop where you are and turn around, go back to where you lost sight of Jesus, leaving behind the crowd you've been traveling with.

ok, where am i going with this in terms of my own life?  i have been struggling (although i didn't realize i was struggling) with decisions about the fall.  since leaving the nazarene church and giving up my role as leader of our mops group, i have been seeking out a new group.  there are two choices, one that meets twice a month, but conflicts with my weekly Bible study (which is also a Bible study for caleb) and the other meets once a month, but does not conflict with my Bible study.

i had pretty much made up my mind to quit my morning Bible study to attend the twice a month mops group.  i would still do the Bible study, but would attend on monday evenings without caleb.

i received a phone call from the Bible study leader, asking if i would interview for a children's leader position.  this threw a wrench in my plan.  i began feeling doubt about my decision to switch from the daytime Bible study for both myself and caleb to the evening Bible study that would not include caleb.  i was still leaning strongly toward the switch though...

so, in the car on friday, i realized that i was following the crowd, but not keeping my eyes on Jesus.  several of my mops friends were going to attend the other mops group (the one that conflicts with my Bible study) and i was seeking to remain a part of my group of friends.  that's not a bad thing, but the problem was that i was seeking it because it made me feel good, but not because i had been seeking to follow Jesus.

confirmation came on friday night.  i attended a beth moore simulcast at my church.  the message was about working for my 100-fold harvest.  it was about hearing God's word and not letting it slip by without taking root in my heart.  it was also about taking that word that i've hidden in my heart and applying it to my life, helping me to achieve my 100-fold harvest.  she placed emphasis on the 100 fold harvest not necessarily meaning 100 folks.

my application: stick with my daytime Bible study, interview for the children's leader position, and watch God continue to work in me through the study of His word.